The Daily Adventures of Mercat

So I totally forgot that today was Fat Tuesday and that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I think this will be the first Ash Wednesday I'm not going to church. I mean, I may have not gone last year but I don't remember.

Anyway, I'm in a terribly mood to deal with people and that will basically be a big sign tomorrow "HELLO I'M NOT A CATHOLIC" and I just don't want to deal with any of that right now... Bleh. I've been like that all day. Not in a people mood. I know exactly why, too, it's just that I happened to read several things that made me in a don't-want-to-argue-with-people mood. First of all, a random article that had caused a Twilight discussion (yeeeeah, I'm a comment reader). I don't want to dislike it just to be a literature snob, but it worries the feminist side of me that so many young girls think it's so good. I mean, for people who know it's not written that well (I did find it so boring I never made it to the point where the plot showed up) and enjoy it as fluff, cool beans, that's fine. But when I'm in a mood like this I also want to encourage people to read good stuff... like Shakespeare, haha... But yeah, sometimes I find it hard to balance encouraging people to learn with shoving it down their throats a little just for sake of argumentative convenience. I'm not the type of person who likes to argue, I just don't like being put at odds with friends. So that's where that comes from. Secondly, an article about the whole atheists-in-america and militant-christians thing, which just always gets me a little riled and anxious. Bleh. And then we went to our Girl Scout meeting where there were nine roughly third-to-fifth grade girls and THEY'VE NEVER HEARD OF THE BEATLES and lately I've been frustrated that kids think High School Musical and Miley Cyrus and that shit is the Best Thing Ever and I just hate pop music so much for so many reasons and I really didn't want to deal with a bunch of annoying girls who've never heard of the Beatles. I now know why I hung out with boys in gradeschool rather than girls, and why I grew into being able to hang out with girls again. It's a maturity or intelligence (or FORETHOUGHT) issue and it explains so much. I just don't like that age group of girls, apparently.

BAH. So, yes, not in a people mood.

Oh my god there is this girl (who is sitting in the other room and it's driving me crazy) and she starts EVERY sentence with "it's one where". Regardless of actual context. If she's explaning something, it's "it's one where". FUCKING LISTEN TO YOURSELF, IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

That's another thing, I've been wanting to jump on people all day for grammar and usage stuff. Not in a people mood.

OH. Oh. Oh my god. So we were hanging out after Girl Scouts waiting for the last mom to come, and two of the girls in Phi Rho were talking about this guy at work who is kind of awkward and apparently only undeleted his facebook to say he was in a relationship with his new girlfriend but OH MY GOD IT WAS BEN CHRISTOFF THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT. I love Ben :C He was such a goofball in high school, and I mean I haven't really talked to him lately but I see him going to and from class and it's not like he grew a stalker beard and shuffles around or something. So I dunno. That just breaks my heart really, because he was a really awesome friend in high school. Lol I remember him playing guitar and harmonica with Mr. Bosticco. Oh lordy. Good times. I miss high school =)

Sooo... Heath Ledger's dead.

I dunno how I feel about this. I was kind of shocked, because he seemed to have pretty good movies and be generally a pretty good guy. And I'm sort of upset because I have a lot of respect and love for the Nolan brothers' Batman, and his Joker looks awesome. (Are they even finished filming? I'd think so, with the trailer out...) But at the same time, the only other movie I could have told you he was in was Brokeback Mountain, although Brothers Grimm and A Knight's Tale are ones I've seen as well, which I like very much. (Just didn't realize it was him--if I don't particularly like an actor, their movies tend to not stick in my head. Heck, even if I do they don't.) So, I never really watched for news of him or anything, so it doesn't really affect me much, other than making me a little upset that Dark Knight and Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus might be affected. =/ That's probably seemingly rude to say, but it's not like I knew this guy on any sort of personal level. ([EDIT3] Oh, and I'm Not There, which I really wanted to see because Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett were in it, as well as Ledger who I had recognized as being awesome for being chosen as the Joker. But I still seem indifferent, and if less so only because I didn't realize how much faith I put in the Nolan brothers after watching the amazing plotlines of Batman Begins and The Prestige, even though I totally knew I did.)

So honestly, it's just rather surreal, and not even in a paranoid "something's not right here" type of way. It's just... huh. Odd. Like it should have been someone else? Like I should care more, rather than just turning around and going about my business? Something like that. *shrug*

It really is sad for his two-year-old daughter, though. =( I bet it would be weird to be watching successful movies and going "hey, that's my dad," and that being the only way you know him. That's fucking creepy, and sad.

Sadder/creepier? It seems like the emotion he put into his work--really living the character--is what did him in. From everything I've read so far (I know, it's been less than 24 hours, how reliable are these sources), it seems like playing such a psychopathic and strange Joker really messed him up. Apparently he did an interview saying that his "inconsistency" (to make it scary) caused him to sleep terribly, and that taking two Ambien only helped him sleep for an hour or so. Which, if you look at that fact next to the fact that he died next to a bunch of sleeping pills, seems very tragic and unfortunate, but it does say something for how dedicated he was to his work, and why he was such a good actor. ([EDIT2] Apparently he was researching for a drug-addict role as well? Even more tragic, but I still can't look at it with anything more than a studious interest.)

Um, so... yeah. Life goes on? I will watch the Dark Knight and will probably think about how surreal it is that he's no longer alive, but that's because I do have that weird morbid twinge. (So it's interesting that I'm compelled to write this much--I think I should care more than I do.)

Huh.

[EDIT] Actually, it kind of reminds me of how I felt when someone told me (Saturday morning before a football game) that Steve Irwin had died. More like it was a trivia fact than anything, and it seems tragic for the rest of your life every time you think about it, but not at first.

Still. Huh.

[EDIT4] Apparently he'd had pneumonia, too. Which really just makes it more of a tragedy, almost a Victorian one, in my mind. What a loss.

I really need to do my homework. =/

I! am in a good mood.

Finally.

And I don't mean, things are better, because they're not. But I am HAPPY.

What did it take? A babysitting job. Well, "babysitting." She was already in bed, so I wached TMC. Yeah, classic movies. My weakness. Like kryptonite. I was raised on them... and I know for a fact they're a good chunk of why I am the way I am. I watched the end of a movie with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire (I think) and it made me want to get up and dance and sing... and take tap again... but not that modern crap, ugh. Lol. =) Seriously, Fred Astaire is my hero.

Anyway. Classic musicals... I just... yeah. That's me. That's what I like, that's what I want, that's how I live. It just is.

And then I watched part of a documentary on Stanley Donen, who did the direction and some dancing and did lighting stuff for whatever movie I watched, plus On the Town, and Singin' in the Rain, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (haven't seen it, but loved performing it), along with many others.

So. Fred Astaire, Stanley Donen, a toast. With lime jello. Because that's what I ate right now since I couldn't get ice cream downstairs to celebrate how hyper I am again. I was happy, and I was loopy, and I was starting to get that almost-drunk quality that Captain Jack Sparrow has that I realized I'd picked up after I saw the second movie. That or it was always a part of me, AND OH MY GOD I NEED TO GO BUY THE SPECIAL EDITION DVD... BONUS EXTRAS, WHIMPER WHIMPER...

Anyway, linkspam.

A good post about believing in God, of sorts. It's incomplete but I read most of it (tired, sorry, it's been hell lately), and I agree with what I did read. If I missed something major, you might want to let me know. http://infinidimincorp.livejournal.com/94573.html

So people over on metaquotes were talking about huntsmen spiders today, which are apparently large, flat spiders that live in Australia that come in under the door or whatnot and hide around the house. They can be as large as wall clocks, and are difficult to kill. And ew. So, being metaquotes, someone mentioned that they'd seen an ice spider larva (Antarctica, thank god) burst out of a penguin's body and spit acid out. So I had to see these ice spiders. TWO AND A FUCKING HALF FEET LARGE. EW EW EW EW EW EW thankgodtheyliveinthedeepcoldwaters. So the first link: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/research/antarctica/2006/journal/6/11/index.php and the second: http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/arthropoda-2.html ew ew ew ew

Robin Sparkles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mJAsgIIfNM (yeah... I finally caught up on How I Met Your Mother via YouTube.)

MI6 on James Bond: http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/opinion_05_no_armour_left.php3


So I ate lime green jello, and rutabaga, and milk to celebrate.

I fucking win. =^n.n^= (And hopefully I'm going to the zoo on Sunday, too! And I think I'm ready for Christmas, too. Hooray!)

[EDIT] Plus... Jimmy Buffett's birthday is on Christmas, someone just reminded me today. =)

I am SO. FREAKING. MYSELF. =^n.n^=